According to an article in Forbes, the National Heritage Foundation wired $1 million to affiliate, Congressional District Programs Inc., just two days before filing for bankruptcy, keeping the money, at least for the time being, out of the potential reach of NHF's outside creditors.  MORE »

The role of the board of directors is essential to the success of a planned giving program. For-profit professionals who advise and serve on boards as well as nonprofit professionals who serve on staff must be sure that their boards are properly informed and involved in order to ensure an effective and efficient program. This session will review the important role that a board of directors should serve in order to assure the success of a planned giving program. Specific topics to be covered will include board duties relative to budget approval, audit, goal-setting, program evaluation, fundraising, and approval of policies and procedures. Evaluation of the planned giving program will be explored in detail with a review of evaluation techniques for various levels of program sophistication. Discussion of fundraising strategies for board members will include activities relative to donor identification, cultivation, education, solicitation, negotiation, recognition, and stewardship.

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Matured bequest administration is often the “orphan” of planned giving in that little attention or help is provided to planned giving staff regarding how to effectively collect these gifts. Despite the fact that deceased donor gifts are the culmination of a planned giving program, many thousands of bequest dollars remain uncollected or are collected at an unacceptably slow rate. This session will provide those charged with the collection of matured donor gifts some highly practical tips and techniques (that do not necessarily require the hiring of an attorney) for collecting what is due their organization. The session will include what to ask for and when, what to do if your request is ignored, how to spot problems on accounting and tax returns (including avoiding income taxes, and effectively collecting IRAs/life insurance/POD accounts), how to (politely) decline a request to return your bequest, and when to join in/sit out litigation with or without an attorney. Samples of suggested letters, tax code citations, tax and probate forms will be included.

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In the post-Enron world, accountability measures have become a major focus area, even in the nonprofit world. Performance metrics are now the rage for development officers across the country. The lingering question remains, how should the performance of gift planning officers be measured? Should it be like other major gifts officers, or should it be measured by its own, unique set of criteria? This session will unveil a comprehensive study of how organizations from all aspects of the gift planning world measure the performance of their gift planning officers, and will cover whether these “best practices” should be more universally adopted.

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Gift planners who work for and/or advise charities or donors as counsel need to be aware of the best practices associated with the education, cultivation, negotiation, completion, recognition and stewardship of planned gifts. Best practices assure compliance with legal and ethical standards to serve the interests of both donors and charities. Gift revenue may be increased for charities while tax and other benefits can be maximized for donors at reduced risk of legal or ethical violations. This session will explore the most important elements in creating effective gift planning policies and procedures. It will share model policies for types of planned gifts, assets for gifts, documentation, privacy, crediting, valuing, recognition, stewardship, reporting, ethical standards and many other topics. Time will be devoted to answer questions.  MORE »

Both the Gift Planner Profile and the data gathered as part of NCPG's membership process confirm that most nonprofit professionals spend only a fraction of their time on gift planning. This session topic is practical for those individuals, especially if they have not been working in planned giving for long. It will give them practical knowledge and suggestions they can take back to their offices to integrate an active planned giving program into their general development efforts. While the session is designed for the nonprofit professional, those in the for-profit sector will gain some insights to help them better serve their nonprofit clients and assist as volunteers with their favorite charities. It will provide a general overview of the basics of a beginning planned giving program: bequests, gifts of life insurance, and beneficial designations, including a description of the types within each category, and the associated benefits for donors.  MORE »

Whether you're building a planned giving program, replacing a headcount, or expanding your staff, finding the "perfect" planned giving officer is always a challenge. This session makes the process easy by walking you through the steps from preparing to enter the candidate market, profiling your dream prospect, building the candidate pool, interviewing top applicants, hiring the new officer, and retaining your new hire. It's simple when you have the rulebook! This session will interest those who manage planned giving programs and those who staff them. It will also interest for-profit professionals who work closely with charities to provide administrative support.  MORE »

Gift planners often encounter donors who want to retain an interest in gift property, direct how the charity uses the property or even have a voice in how the charity itself operates after the gift. This session will examine the kinds of rights a donor can retain or receive as a result of a charitable gift and explore the legal limits on the donor?s post-gift involvement. It will help gift planners manage donors? expectations and spot potential problems in long-term arrangements with donors. Syllabus for Gift Planners code: 2.00  MORE »

The implementation date of a charitable gift plan is a red-letter day in the lives of the donors and charitable organization. Smiles, hugs, and excitement abound. But not all gifts have happy endings. Most of these cases could be avoided through certain actions by the planned giving officer and by the donor’s advisor. This session will provide lessons for future gift negotiations.  MORE »

There is a pronounced trend to carve out marketing, technical support, donor cultivation and other efforts from the traditional planned giving role description and assign them elsewhere. At some point, little or nothing can be left of the traditional planned giving officer’s job description, hence the “dis-integration” of the program. This session will point out the fallacies in many of the current trends and suggest ways that planned giving officers can be proactive in preventing unfortunate structural changes to their programs.  MORE »